Romney adviser Hubbard says to increase taxes on the rich

Glenn Hubbard, the dean of the Columbia Business School who was a top economics aide to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, gave further cover for a fiscal-cliff deal by advocating higher taxes for the rich.

In an op-ed in the Financial Times (registration may be required), Hubbard suggested raising average tax rates, though not marginal tax rates, as President Obama has advocated. “There are ways to raise revenue without increasing marginal rates. Tax deductions should be scaled back, especially in the areas of mortgage interest, charitable giving and employer-provided health insurance,” Hubbard wrote.

It’s not a clear departure from Romney’s stance in fact, as the former Massachusetts governor also advocating limiting deductions, though he never specified a clear level for capping deductions, or for that matter which deductions would be capped.

Hubbard advocated three positions to solving the fiscal cliff — one, limiting deductions on upper-income taxpayers; second, agreeing a package of spending reductions over the n ext 10 years; and third, gradually reducing “benefit expenditure over time for the non-poor.”

Meanwhile, anti-tax campaigner Grover Norquist said in an interview with the National Journal that a “carbon tax swap” would not violate his pledge that many Republicans have taken with his group not to raise taxes. A carbon tax swap, which Norquist says “would infuriate” taxpayers, would work by marrying an income tax cut with taxes caused by burning coal, oil and natural gas.